Monday, January 22, 2018

Metallattorney's Top 5 Concerts of 2017

Over the last couple of years, the number of concerts that I have attended has skyrocketed. A huge part of that is the fact that my wife has realized that even though she may not enjoy the bands, she does enjoy going to concerts. And she has started liking a lot more metal, making it more palatable for her to attend the concerts. She may never really like thrash or black metal, but more melodic bands do tend speak to her to some extent. For a time, it seemed like the only time I posted was after attending concerts, though I am trying to fix that. With concerts becoming such a major part of my own metal fandom, I thought it would be interesting to name the five concerts of 2017 I enjoyed the most:

5. KREATOR, EZRA, GAROTED

I have seen a lot of local bands in recent years, but Garoted at this show was the one that blew me away the most. Garoted has started to make a little bit of noise in the metal underground and they put on a blistering performance this night. They were not the headliners though and Kreator, a band I never expected to see live, was as good as they are on any of their albums. The German thrash metal band was incredibly impressive, as I had hoped.

4. THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, SUFFOCATION, NECROT, WORMWITCH

I am not the biggest TBDM fan, though I do enjoy their particular brand of At The Gates worship. If TBDM was the only band playing, I may not have attended. This concert was all about seeing Suffocation, and the veteran brutal death metal band exceeded my expectations, even though Frank Mullen did not sing. But what pushes this concert so high in my mind was the fantastic performances by Necrot and Wormwitch, two up-and-coming death metal bands that will be very interesting to watch in the next few years.

3. IRON MAIDEN, GHOST

There were two bands in particular coming into 2017 that I have always wanted to see. I ended up seeing both bands last year. Iron Maiden is certainly the highest profile band from that short list. Somehow they ended up playing in Lincoln, Nebraska, which I never would have expected. So of course, I had to go. Their show was incredible. I just hope it leads to more metal bands playing in Lincoln. The best part of the night though was that my dad was able to get my wife and I seats in the luxury boxes, elevating this from another concert to a huge event. It might have been the concert of the year, but the next two were tough to top.

2. MAYHEM, IMMOLATION, BLACK ANVIL

I really do not know what to say about Mayhem's performance. It was the most memorable live show I have ever seen. The theatricality of it and the atmosphere were both extremely tough to top. The notorious band lived up to their reputation with an incredibly dark and powerful show. The supporting groups were certainly no slouches either. Like Kreator, I never expected to be able to see Mayhem live.

1. TESTAMENT, SEPULTURA, PRONG, DYING GORGEOUS LIES

Testament was the other band I was referring to in the Iron Maiden entry. I knew there would one day be a chance to see them, but I have long wanted to see them anyway. I was devastated when I was 18 and was not able to see them in Lincoln because the show was a 19 and over show. Testament has long been a favorite band of mine, so I desperately wanted to see them live. The fact that they were touring with Sepultura was that much better because they were also once one of my favorite bands.

Additional Notes

-I finally saw the last of the Big 4 in 2017 when I saw Anthrax. And honestly, Anthrax quite possibly put up the best performance of any of the Big 4. They were certainly the most energetic and that energy was infectious. I wanted to put that concert in my Top 5 based on their performance alone, but the other bands on the bill were Code Orange, The Devil Wears Prada, and Killswitch Engage. So, I just could not justify a spot on the list.

-The Goatwhore concert also almost made the list. They played with four local bands and that is probably the biggest development in the concerts I have attended. I have seen Garoted, Ezra, Drowning in the Platte, Exit Sanity, Orpheus, Autopsick, and Narcotic Self this year. They have all been surprisingly good, with Garoted being the main highlight. The Nebraska metal scene is improving drastically over the last few years and it is great to see local bands get a chance to share the stage with major metal bands.

-I would be interested in my wife's list. I doubt it looks very similar.

1 comment:

Well, since we determined that we went to FAR more of your concerts than mine (which is something we need to have a conversation about...), I'll only do a top three.3. Tie between Jackyl (whose opening band I did not like) and Dokken, Jack Russell's Great White, Firehouse & Hericane Alice2. Iron Maiden with Ghost (largely, but not exclusively for Ghost)1. Steel Panther in San Antonio

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I am a small-town attorney with a passion for heavy metal music and baseball. This blog will be about those things and whatever the hell else I feel like.
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